The 4th and a New Brother

We were able to celebrate the 4th of July with family in Childress because Kenney had half a week off of school. We spent most of the 4th itself with Kenney's brother and his family at the pool and their house. The boys loved having people to play with all day.  Kyler refused to get in the water at the pool, and Damon only spent about 5 mins in the water, but they still seemed to have fun.  Kyler did however play in the little pool in the backyard and the slip-n-slide.  Kyler did not like the fireworks Kevin was lighting off in the driveway.  The poor kid was so scared he was sitting alone in the house waiting for it to be over.  We were nervous about how he would react to the big fireworks, but he did much better than we expected.  We all had a really good time and Kevin and Kerry were nice enough to entertain us the whole day!!  We spent the rest of the time at Nana and Papa's house just enjoying space!!

Kyler eating snacks (of course) with his cousins.

Damon with a ball (of course)

It took forever to get Damon in the water, but at least he got in!!  He even went down the slide with Kenney.  He screamed when they hit the water, but he did it!

This is where Damon preferred to play, in the puddle!

Gentry was OBSESSED with Radley.  She wanted to be close to him the entire time she was around him.  She wouldn't even do fireworks because she had to be close to the baby!!

The boys throwing poppers (the little 'fireworks' that pop when you throw them).  This was before the loud ones started.

Kyler extremely nervous and timid about the sparklers.

He was a little bit scared of the big fireworks at first but he warmed up much faster to these.  He even stayed outside when everyone came back to do the fireworks at home.

Poor Kenney tried so hard to get a picture of the 3 of us.  He was never successful, but I love this attempt of the boys!  At least one of us had our eyes closed in every shot.

We had rootbeer floats after the big fireworks and Damon took eating his very seriously.  He had to have both hands on the table the entire time.  He wasn't about to waste one drop.

Just a funny sign we saw on our way back home that so reminds me of small town Texas!

We didn't get to play with Aunt Savanna very long, but I really like this picture.

Kyler and Damon have been so much better about having a little brother than I expected.  They each have to hold Radley at least three times a day (it only lasts about 10 seconds each time, but at least they know he is a part of our family).  They still aren't so sure about me feeding the baby, and Damon is figuring out that I am slightly less able to discipline him when I am feeding Radley.  I am a little scared about what the future may hold during feedings, but I am hoping for the best.  The boys can actually be pretty sweet to him.  There are some videos of them both singing to him.  It is really precious.  I still think I might go crazy at times, but we are adjusting to life with 3 boys age 3 and under!!

Kyler and Radley

Damon and Radley

This is how Damon chooses to 'sit' at the table.  He just hangs there, literally hangs there to eat.

Why would anyone choose to eat this way?  We question many of Damon's behaviors and this one is no different.

This is how Radley spends a lot of his days.  I am not used to a baby sleeping as much as he does.  It is very nice I might add!

So sweet and innocent

He is awake sometimes!!

Radley grabs his face and pulls his hair so we have to put little mittens on him.

Oh Damon

All ready for church with their hands in their pockets!!

Damon starts off singing the end of the ABCs, but they end singing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.  Sorry about the bad filming.

Kyler was so cute one day when he climbed up onto the couch to sing to Radley.  I didn't know any of my boys could be so sweet!

The NICU

Three days after Radley was born, the nurse checked his temperature and it was 100.1  The doctor in the nursery was concerned and consulted with the doctors in the NICU.  They all thought it was best to admit him to the NICU just in case he had an infection.  The situation with his kidney made them more concerned because they wanted to make sure he did not have a kidney infection.  So by 10am Wednesday he was admitted.  So our forever long week began, and we came home without our baby.

We were blessed to have Oma and Papa Dude take Kyler and Damon to my Nanny's in Brownwood, and we didn't have to worry about them at all.  We then started making a trip to the hospital every 3 hours to feed Radley.  It was nice to have the comfort that he was pretty stable and healthy during the entire time, but it was really hard on all of us.  Poor Radely went through so much.  He had blood work and other tests run daily and had to have 4 catheters during his short NICU stay.  He was such a trooper.  He never seemed extra fussy or upset (except when the nurses strated messing with him).  He did spit-up really bad right in front of the doctor, and she was concerned that he would get dehydrated so even more IV fluids began.

I was also blessed because Kenney was able to come with me to almost every feeding.  Even though he had class and other church responsibilities, he made every effort to be there with me.  He was my driver to and from the hospital and kept me company while I fed the baby.  We both got tired of the long walk from the parking lot into the hospital, and our hands and forearms were raw from scrubbing in 8 times a day to get inside the NICU.  We were both exhausted.  Finally, on Sunday we were able to bring our sweet baby home and our other boys came home too.  It was so nice having our family back together again!

This is his bed after he upgraded from the first one.  He was moved closer to the more stable babies within 24 hrs and put back into the bassinet type bed.

Some of the cords and wires he had coming from him.

We were some of the lucky parents in the NICU that acutally got to hold our baby and not just touch him through a hole in his bed.  However, wearing the yellow gowns was extremely annoying.

This face pretty much tells the story about our feelings regarding our situation, and it's a good view of  his IV.  It was extremely hard to change his clothes with that IV strapped to his arm.

It was so much easier to hold and feed Radley once he was unhooked from all the machines.  I'm not sure how long it will take his poor little heels to recover from all the pokes he got and all the tests they ran.

I showed up one morning and this how I found him.  I thought for sure they were going to make us stay an extra week longer, but luckily the photo lights made his bilirubin go down quickly.  He only had the lights for a day and a half.

Hanging out under the lights with his cool shades!

Radley was just trying to be like his brothers by going without clothes!

Enjoying the lights.  It looks like he is tanning, but just the opposite is happening.  His cute 'tan' is going away.  They were calling him the beach baby because of his highlighted hair, tan skin, and cool shades!

He pulled off about 5 pair of glasses and left two big red marks on the side of his face.  One time when he pulled them off, we heard his skin getting ripped off.  He screamed so loud.  We felt really bad for him, but he kept both hands by the side of his face tugging at the velcro pieces even when the glasses were off his face.

Nanny came to visit, along with Aunt Edna, Aunt Natalie, and Uncle Richie.  Nanny even got him to grin if you look close.

All the nurses in the NICU knew who Radely was because of his hair.  Multiple times while we were there random nurses would come by just to see the baby with all the beautiful hair.  The last nurse we had was excited to get the 'cute' baby everyone had been talking about!

One side of his face where he pulled off the glasses.  Poor kid went through a lot in the first week of his life!

Radley Bolt Keys

Our sweet little Radley was born Monday June 24, 2013 at 2:37pm. He was 7.7lbs and 20.75in. Kenney and I went to the hospital at 7am for me to be induced and before 3pm he arrived.  I had the horrible drug oxytocin (or pit) which made everything horrible, but luckily he got here pretty quick.  Kenney was even able to go to his morning classes since the hospital was basically on campus, and my mom was able to stay with me while he was there.  He decided to come back to the delivery room once I was to a 6 and contractions were 2 mins apart.  It was a good thing he came back because Radley was born about 30 mins later!  He came out and seemed healthy, but on Wednesday the doctors decided to put him in the NICU (more on that later).  We hope to bring our sweet boy home soon, but until then here are some pictures!

The only nice thing about being induced is that you can prepare for the baby and have someone there to watch your kids.  We were very blessed to have my family come down to take care of Kyler and Damon.  It was very nice to not worry about them while we were at the hospital.  Driving from Missouri and staying for over a week has been a HUGE blessing for us!

So far everyone thinks he's a pretty good mix of both his brothers.

He was known as the baby with highlights in his hair.  All the nurses kept talking about how much money they have paid to get their hair done and he was born like this!!

He has the LONGEST toes.

  His Papa, Nana, and Aunt Kacy drove up from Childress Monday afternoon just to see him and then drove back. 

The first of many bad family pictures with 3 little boys!!

Radley holding Kyler's finger.

Damon showing everyone the baby's nose.

Radley and his very excited big brother.  Kyler actually asked to hold him which really surprised me.  He said, "Mom, we need to take the baby to our house.  He needs to go to my house."  I hope this love continues!!

Aunt Sara holding him right after he got all cleaned up!

Hmm...How much trouble should I cause?!?

Papa Dude

Aunt Zadi Bug

Last Few Days as a Family of 4

I am still in awe that we have another baby coming. I have had 9 LONG months to get used to the idea, but it is still hard to grasp.  I just realized the other day that I only have a limited number of days left with just 2 boys.  It really makes me sad.  I am finally getting excited to meet our new little man, but it just hit me that my time with these two boys will never be the same.  Even though they are crazy and wild, I love them so much.  We have had an adventurous almost 2 years, but by the 24th for sure, it will be a party of 5!!

Damon showing off his newly built Monsters.

Gotta love cheesy smiles!

These boys love bubbles.

Bubble Face!

Oh Damon

I just think this face is funny.

I am not quite sure what they were doing while they were playing in the blankets; it was just nice that they were playing together and not destroying things!

The boys jump around on our couch pretty much everyday. They are acting like different super heroes. I think Damon is Superman in this clip, and Kyler is the Hulk. I am not sure why Superman is rolling around on the ground, but he is quite the crazy little boy.

Our New 'Backyard'

As I have mentioned several times, we have very limited space in this apartment and no yard. Our complex had a very old tennis/basketball court that was fenced in right next to our apartment. Unfortunately, in March they decided to tear it down.  I was really sad because it was the easiest way to get our boys outside.  There was no shade and there were cracks everywhere, but the boys could run around and throw things with a fence to keep everything enclosed.  It has taken until this last week, but they finally removed all the concrete and we now have dirt!  We asked if they were going to put in a new court, but they said that are just doing grass.  That would be good, except so many people around here have dogs, it will just become a pooping yard.  People are not very good about picking up after their dogs.  Hopefully it will be nice to some grass, I just don't want to clean up dog crap from my kids' shoes every time we try to play.

Before most of the demolition.  They had already taken the net, fence, and basketball goals down.

It looked like this for a good solid month at least.  Nice and safe for children.

We now have lovely dirt!  Damon was again nervous about playing in the dirt, but he had shoes on this time so he warmed up much faster!

Kyler likes to dump the dirt on the sidewalk.  I think after I made him clean it up the third time he caught on and kept the dirt with the dirt!

Very carefully he picked up the rocks and began throwing them.  He has never had a problem throwing rocks at a pond, but for some reason he was unsure this time.

Climbing the 'big' mountain

Of course we had to find the BIG rocks/clumps of dirt!

It took two boys to shove that one in the bucket.

Building a tent in their room with Daddy

 A rare picture of me with one of the boys

And the dreaded pregnancy pics.  This is me at 36 weeks.  I am measuring 'normal' this time around so no one can tell me that I don't look big!

I hope my children appreciate these pictures later because I hate taking pictures of me!